Re: Pearls Before Swine: Rat The Luddite

rkshullat@rosettacondot.com wrote:

William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:

Paul S Person wrote:

On Fri, 16 Aug 2024 17:31:43 -0400, William Hyde
<wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>

Paul S Person wrote:

On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 16:22:11 GMT, scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:
>

Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> writes:

On Wed, 14 Aug 2024 18:13:46 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
>
<snippo mucho, response is to plastic reusable shopping bags>
>

I use cloth bags....

>
I have a box with handles (e.g. a document storage box) that
I keep in the car.  Tell the checker to leave everything in
the cart and transfer from cart to box at car.
>
No bags necessary.

>
I'm non-motorized, so I not only need bags (currently boxes, as noted
elsewhere) but need exactly two of them (having exactly two arms to
tote them with), which affects how much I can buy at one time.
>
But walking to and (especially) from the store is great exercise!

>
To, yes, but from is a cardiac arrest waiting to happen. Or a fall,
given the state of the sidewalks here in winter.  But then, why not both?

>
Walking is aerobic. It strengthens the cardiovascular system.

>
I am aware of this, but in current circumstances I must be careful.

 At one of our houses the closest grocery store is 5.4 miles, at the other
it's 1.9 miles. No sidewalks, no protected crossings.

Now you're making me feel nostalgic.  Especially for the corner of Texas and University, where you step (or run) off the street onto grass - which turns out to be a few seedlings covering two feet of liquid mud.
There was also a wheelchair ramp up to this.  Luckily nobody actually in a wheelchair could get to the ramp to sink themselves axle-deep in the mud.
Ah memories.
Once the authorities figured out that I had gone for good, they did put in sidewalks. Who knows what might come next?  A non-toxic water supply?
  The 5.4 miles is all

two-lane roads with 50-60 MPH speed limits and a drop from the narrow and,
in some places, unimproved breakdown lane into the bar ditch. The other is
not so bad, but it requires crossing a six-lane road. I contemplated it one
time (needed to drop off a car for service) but it felt too much like immersive
Frogger.

My first day in the US I wanted to eat at a restaurant across the street from my hotel in Maryland.  As I got to the end of the hotel driveway I was confronted with nine traffic lights.  I ate at the hotel.  In fact, I never left the hotel except by cab.
Alas the hotel restaurant was a bit too good.  I put on five pounds.

 

OTOH, the "freezing rain" we had a while back defeated me. I'd never
encountered it before. I'll be paying attention to it in the future.

>
After one particularly gentle freezing rain event I was standing on a
sidewalk and slowly sliding down a hill I had never known was there.
Seemed flat to the eye, but not to gravity.

 That's the most common winter "weather event" in the places I've spent most of
my life (central Oklahoma and north Texas). Dangerous stuff. I was headed
home from work early one afternoon with freezing rain coming down. About a
mile from home I was waiting to turn at a stop light. It was an out-sloped
rural road with a deep bar ditch on the downslope side. The car in front of
me, completely stopped, suddenly started to slide sideways and fell into the
ditch. The driver waved at everyone to indicate he was ok and got on his
phone. I made it home, but it was several days before we could get out of the
neighborhood.
We were lucky...a really bad ice storm left my dad without power for over a
week. He was able to convince someone to deliver a good quantity of firewood
and both he and the dog slept in front of the fireplace.

A Louisiana friend said something about "Indoor hog weather" when I mentioned an ice storm.
William Hyde